Hotwells Public Baths
HOTWELLS PUBLIC BATHS, JACOB'S WELLS ROAD, BS8 1DX
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1292890
- Date first listed:
- 04-Mar-1977
- List Entry Name:
- Hotwells Public Baths
- Statutory Address:
- HOTWELLS PUBLIC BATHS, JACOB'S WELLS ROAD, BS8 1DX
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2004-07-29
- Reference:
- IOE01/12531/06
- Rights:
- © Ms Ruth Povey. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1292890
- Date first listed:
- 04-Mar-1977
- Date of most recent amendment:
- 30-Dec-1994
- List Entry Name:
- Hotwells Public Baths
- Statutory Address 1:
- HOTWELLS PUBLIC BATHS, JACOB'S WELLS ROAD, BS8 1DX
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- HOTWELLS PUBLIC BATHS, JACOB'S WELLS ROAD, BS8 1DX
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- City of Bristol (Unitary Authority)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- ST 57812 72690
Details
This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 21/11/2016 and on 08/12/2016
ST 5772,
901-1/41/125
BRISTOL,
JACOB'S WELLS ROAD (South West side),
Hotwells Public Baths
(Formerly Listed as: JACOB'S WELLS ROAD (West side) Jacob's Well Bathhouse)
04.03.77
II
Former public baths, gymnasium, now dance theatre. Designed 1881, opened 1889. By
Josiah Thomas. Red Cattybrook brick with buff terracotta
dressings, gable stacks and slate roof.
Central swimming pool with lateral blocks and front cross
passage. Northern Renaissance Revival style.
Single storey; 12 bay front, with 3-storey 5-bay pool gable
behind. The front is divided into 3 sections by brick
pilasters with terracotta domed octagonal caps, the sections
between articulated by octagonal terracotta pilasters with
smaller domed tops.
The central section has a terracotta panel with HOTWELLS
PUBLIC BATHS beneath a raised panel with the City arms, and a
pediment with foliate decoration. Central tripartite window,
flanking doorways inscribed WOMENS WARM BATHS to the left, and
MENS SWIMMING AND WARM BATHS to the right, and outer paired
windows, all have shouldered architraves and segmental
pediments; the central window has a raised panel between
consoles to a segmental pediment. 3 left-hand bays are blind,
the 4 to the right have paired windows. Each side block has an
end gable with a stack with terracotta panelled and gableted
top.
The large pool gable has outer brick pilasters to domed caps,
and a raised central section to a stepped pedimented gable. 2
lower strings, and a frieze and dentil cornice between the
pilasters; the middle section is divided by terracotta strips,
with 5 shell-head niches above the cornice, a cornice above
them, and a terracotta pediment with foliate decoration and
the date of opening, under a ball finial. The sides of the
pool have 6 deep semicircular arches under a corbel table.
Full length ridge lantern. To the rear right-hand side is a
decapitated square chimney with chamfered sides and terracotta
bands.
INTERIOR: a covered pool with a semicircular steel truss roof
carried on steel corbels, side blocks, and boiler house to the
left, with cast-iron columns with octagonal bases and moulded
capitals. The baths were converted into a dance centre c1980
and comprise a very fine example of their type.
HISTORICAL NOTE: the water for the pool came from Jacob's Well
on Brandon Hill.
(Gomme A, Jenner M and Little B: Bristol, An Architectural
History: Bristol: 1979-: 393).
Listing NGR: ST5781272690
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 379835
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Gomme, A H, Jenner, M, Little, B D G, Bristol, An Architectural History, (1979), 393
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 13-Jun-2026 at 22:54:40.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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